Death Pool
is about a guy who was traumatized as a kid by his
babysitter who liked to drown him and do other nasty things to him
involving water, who grew up with a twisted fascination to get revenge and
drown girls, attractive girls, in the San Fernando valley, who becomes a
famous serial killer with a cult following.

Basic question, why
pools, why drowning?

It hasn't been done yet! And drowning
has a sort of chicness to it that attracted me.

I
was hanging with my old roommate at the time, by the pool, partying a bit
and the conversation turned to a guy who likes to drown girls in pools in
the Valley. We were in the Valley and I liked the idea so much that I
wrote the script, and produced the movie with my production team,
Traplight Media, shout out to Gabriel Campisi and
Demetrius Stear.

To
me, Death Pool seems a bit like
an evil twin to your Wishing for
a Dream, even if the two films aren't even in the same genre -
would you at all agree to this?

Randy
Wayne loved the script and I was fortunate to have him on board, Demetrius
is my producing partner and is a great actor so it was meant to be. We
were lucky that everyone else was really talented.

A
few words about the shoot as such?

It was a tight schedule
but the vibe was really nice.

Another new movie of
yours is Devil's Domain - so
what's that one about?

A cyber bullied girl who meets the
Devil, who helps her get revenge and get famous in exchange for her soul.
It deals with topical issues, very LGBT, social media, the quest for fame,
issues that a lot of young people really deal with. Hopefully it helps
shed a light on these important issues.

What inspired you to write that
one, and is any of it based on personal experiences (not the deal with the
devil I hope)?

Well, the Devil is in all of us a bit I
would argue, and I wouldn’t argue that I’ve had some dark experiences,
but no, this story was not based on my personal experiences, but yes it was
loosely based on a real young girl’s experience being bullied.

Devil's
Domain does have its violent spots - so do talk about the gory
bits of your movie for a bit, and how were they achieved? And regarding
violence, was there ever a line you refused to cross in that movie?

We
had a great special effects team lead by Vincent Guastini, who made it
look very gory. As for a line of goriness, well, I think we were pretty
gory, but I like to push the envelope and get creative. I don’t have a
problem with violence (on screen).

What
can you tell us about your directorial approach to your story at hand?

I started in the business as an actor, so I like to work with the actors
and I sort of have an improvisational directing style with the actors,
that said, many times I change it up and do long takes, long, elaborate
camera moves which require a different more technically refined
approach. I enjoy mixing it up. Depending on how much time we have since
those shots require more rehearsal and choreography with the actors and
the camera.

Again,
do talk about your cast?

They were great, Linda Bella, Madi
Vodane, Kelly Decker, Zack Kozlow and everyone was killer. Michael Madsen
is a legend. Great to work with him, he raised the bar for everyone else.

Also, what was that shoot like?

Again, tight schedule but very smooth, and great crew and everyone was
on their A game.

Both
Death Pool and Devil's
Domain do have a darkly humourous side to them - so do talk about
the movies' brand of comedy for a bit, and how important do you think is
humour for the horror genre as a whole?

Humor is important
sometimes, to alleviate the horrific side of things, plus it eases the
pain of seeing some of the more sad elements in the movie.

I would say follow me
on Instagram - @jaredcohn1 - and on IMDb and Facebook! Lots of great things
cooking!

Your/your movies'
website, Facebook, whatever else?

Check out
www.JaredCohn.com
and my Instagram and Facebook! Follow me! And Twitter: @traplightmedia

Anything else you're
dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?

I appreciate people like you who do the interviews and reviews and all
the fans, and the supporters and people who watch the movies, and it’s
great to be working in Los Angeles making movies! Much love to the
people!!! :)